Eyes rolling, I shook my head. “We’ll see. I still haven’t seen your dress.”
Cheryl’s phone buzzed. “Mitch is getting irritated. I gotta go.” She gave Rachel a quick hug. Then Maria. “Be good, girls, see you later.”
“Why would I want to be good?” Rachel called after her.
With a wave, Cheryl slid into her car, and then she was pulling out.
“What does she see in Mitch?” Maria asked abruptly, and I glanced at her.
I had no idea. Cheryl didn’t talk about him much, except that he’d asked her to Homecoming. ‘Course, she also said he’d forgiven her for something from the summer.
“Does it matter?” Rachel asked, eyeing Maria.
“Just…” Maria hesitated. “He’s not that nice a guy.”
“Nope,” Rachel said. “Most guys are douche bags. She likes him. I just keep an eye on her to make sure she isn’t giving up too much to make him happy. Hopefully, he’ll move along again in a few weeks.”
“What is wrong with him?” I glanced from one girl to the other. “She seems crazy about him.”
“Like Maria said,” Rachel pushed off her car. “He’s not a nice guy. He’s got jealousy issues, for one. Wants stuff he can’t have. Anyway, I need to go…I’ll keep an eye on Cheryl.” Rachel pointed at me. “Don’t skip out on tonight. I want to see that dress.”
“I won’t.”
She slid into her car and pulled away, leaving me with Maria.
Rachel didn’t want to talk about Mitch and Cheryl. Whether it was out of protectiveness or because she just didn’t want to talk about them, I wasn’t sure. I checked my phone for the time, I had another half hour before I had to head over to Carol’s to do the hair and makeup. I’d thought about going later in the day, but I wasn’t planning on doing anything crazy after.
“Frankie?”
Facing Maria, I considered her. A frown tightened her brow, and she’d folded her arms. The color she’d chosen for her nails was the palest pink—it was so pale, it was almost not a color at all.
“Did you talk to Jake?”
Ahh. Had I asked him why they’d broken up? I had asked him. “Yes.”
She exhaled. “So, now you know.”
I nodded slowly. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you got hurt.”
Maria shrugged. “He didn’t lie to me. He didn’t make up stories…or lead me on. I could have lived not being a score point, but…” She shrugged. “That wasn’t what got to me in the long run.”
A part of me said walk away. Just get in my car and go. But the rest of me focused on Maria, who despite everything, had once upon a time also been my friend. “I can imagine.”
“No,” she said with a faint shake of her head. “You can’t. But…” Maria paused, then glanced around before narrowing the distance between us. “Not everything that happened was his fault. I know that…up here.” She tapped her head. “But I also know that…the last party, there was something in the drinks. Or maybe just in mine.”
I frowned. “You think they roofied you?”
The guys got a little nuts, but they wouldn’t do that. Period.
Folding her arms, Maria shivered even in the sun. “Someone did. No…I don’t think it was them. But they weren’t the only ones at the party. You saw those pictures.”
“The ones Sharon posted to point out what a slut I am?”
Maria nodded. “Look, I don’t remember a lot of that night. What I do remember was I woke up the next morning with no panties, and I’d definitely had sex.”
Heat crawled up the back of my neck.
“At first, I told myself it had to be Jake. I wanted it to be Jake…even after I found Jake asleep with another girl sprawled on top of him downstairs. We’d already broken up, and I don’t even know why I went to the party other than to rub it in his face that he couldn’t have me anymore. It was stupid.”